Obradovich: An economic crisis won't make Congress do its job

The sequester failed, and so would government shutdown

Sep. 23, 2013

Suppose you built an addition to your home. You didn’t really want it; your spouse talked you into it. It wasn’t to your taste, it was too expensive and when it was finished, you absolutely hated it.

Would you threaten to tear down the entire house unless your spouse agreed to raze the addition? How about just refusing to keep making the mortgage payments and going into foreclosure?

It sounds ridiculous to many of us — but apparently not to everyone. The Washington Post reported last week that 43 percent of Americans want Congress to refuse to raise the limit on the national debt and let the government default on paying its bills and obligations.

That’s not just disbelief that the debt ceiling really matters. The poll showed 73 percent of Americans believe defaulting on bills and obligations would do “serious harm” to the U.S. economy. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and Sean Sullivan illustrated the phenomenon using the movie “The Big Lebowski,” in which one of the characters is described as a nihilist.

“The thinking of that group likely goes something like this: Not raising the debt ceiling is a bad thing for the economy. But, the only way to fix the debt and spending problems the United States faces is to force just such a large-scale crisis in hopes that it shocks the American political system into changing its ways,” the Cillizza/Sullivan article states.

Good heavens. If people are expecting reform out of crisis, they haven’t been paying attention. The experience of the past two years should make it clear enough that Congress could set itself on fire and still be unable to agree to turn on the hose. You may recall that everyone thought the automatic budget cuts under sequestration were so irresponsible and draconian that no one would allow them to remain in place. Guess what, they’re mostly still in effect.

The debt ceiling fight is still to come, however. What about this week’s showdown? Congress has until midnight Monday to pass a continuing resolution to keep funding the government, or it will shut down on Tuesday.

The Republican House voted Friday to approve the resolution on the condition that the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is defunded. The Democrat-controlled Senate will most likely strip the Obamacare provision, which President Obama has threatened to veto. Then it would be up to House Republican leaders whether to pass the Senate version with Democratic support, or allow the shutdown to take place.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who supports defunding Obamacare, was quoted in the New York Times saying Senate Democratic leaders would likely use “brute political power” to force a simple majority vote on the bill. That way, Republicans in the Senate couldn’t use a filibuster or other tactics to prevent a vote.

The concept of majority rule is not “brute” political power. It’s a core principle of our democracy. It’s when the minority rules that you get tyranny and other brutish behavior.

It’s not entirely the Republicans’ fault that the federal government has reached this point. Democrats share the blame for failing to pass budgets. President Obama has negotiated to pass spending resolutions and raise the debt ceiling in the past and now he’s refusing to play ball this time. Obamacare is flawed, but the all-or-nothing dynamic in Congress means nobody is trying to fix it.

The continued operation of the federal government should not be a bargaining chip, but it happens. The commitment of the United States to pay the bills that Congress has already authorized and incurred should never be in question. It shouldn’t have been last time.

Yes, both parties are wrong in this but right now, the onus is on Republican leaders to stand up to the tea-party minority. Respecting the Constitution involves more than making the federal government look like it did when we had 13 colonies. It also means respecting the balance of power among the three branches of government and accepting majority rule.

It’s time for the GOP to show it is serious about being the party of fiscal responsibility. That doesn’t mean just cutting spending, but also paying the bills that are due and making sure taxpayers get their money’s worth in services.